Entities with substantial printing demands often use a production printer that prints on a web of print media at high-speed (e.g., one hundred pages per minute or more). A production printer typically includes a print controller that controls the overall operation of the printing system, and a print engine that physically marks the web. The print engine has an array of printheads and each individual printhead includes multiple tiny nozzles (e.g., 360 nozzles per printhead depending on resolution) that are operable to discharge ink as controlled by the printhead controller.
To ensure that ink does not dry in the nozzle (which can clog the nozzle and decrease print quality), flush marks are periodically printed by the nozzles. The flush marks may be printed onto non-used portions of the web. Alternatively, nozzle flushing may be dispersed within portions of the web marked with print data. However, printing flush lines at the margins of the web tends to waste ink, and printing flush patterns within the printed image tends to reduce the quality of the printed output.